About 15 years ago, Aaron Barrett penned a song that warned of the potential ills upstart music artists might face from major record labels.

“They tell me it’s cool … I just don’t believe it.”

Then, the Reel Big Fish frontman watched as the words from “Sell Out” came to life – for his band.

The 1997 hit looms as the band’s biggest commercial success to date, and its short-lived run on a major label lingers as a forgettable footnote in Reel Big Fish’s two-decade history.

“It is kind of funny how the lyrics ended up being a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Barrett said in a telephone interview from Detroit before a recent show. “It was kind of a joke when those lyrics were written. But I think it was weird at the same time because we had a sense of, ‘We know this is what’s going to happen.’

“But as a young band, at that point all you can do is enjoy yourself as much as possible, because it could be a short ride. Luckily for us, it’s been a very long, enjoyable ride.”

As it turns out, “Sell Out” was far from the pinnacle of success for Reel Big Fish — it was just the beginning. Reel Big Fish remains perhaps the most viable and relevant band that spawned from the 1990s Southern California-bred, ska-punk era thanks in large part to a relentless touring schedule — its Reno show Sunday is the fourth of 10 straight days of performances, and the band averages 250 dates per year — and a steady stream of projects in the recording studio.

“The band had a taste of being played on the radio -- we had that commercial push when the whole punk-ska thing was happening,” the singer-guitarist said. “When ska crept back into the underground, what kept us alive was the constant touring.”

The band is marking its 20th anniversary in part with the July 31 release of “Candy Coated Fury,” its seventh studio album, and a yearlong tour galvanized by a fan base full of diehards whose loyalty hasn’t wavered, and a new generation of younger fans who have gravitated to Reel Big Fish’s stylings.

Barrett said the band thrives when it has a jam-packed touring schedule — it is on the road a minimum of six months per year — and its new album seems to suggest Reel Big Fish is at its best when it has the liberty to produce music on its own terms.

It’s melodic enough for casual listening, and edgy enough to inspire dancing and moshing during live shows. Barrett said the album’s title is an accurate description of what listeners can expect from the 14-track release.

“‘Candy Coated Fury’ is kind of how we categorize the music. You have this really fun, happy, dance music mixed in with these sarcastic, sometimes dark, twisted lyrics that counter-balance each other,” Barrett said.

“The music has this sort of quality where you can’t help but go crazy when you’re in the audience,” he said. “In turn, we pick up on the energy from the audience and that makes us go crazy, and it’s a symbiotic circle between us and the crowd. It’s a carousel of energy that goes back and forth.”

Highlights of the album include the infectious, guilty-pleasure-sing-along lead track, “Everyone Else is An A—hole,” the biting “I Know You Too Well to Like You Anymore” and “The Promise,” a cover of the 1980s pop hit by When In Rome.

“We kind of ended up naturally gravitating toward that natural reckless abandon that the band has. I think the fans, so far, have been responding well to it,” Barrett said. “This material ended up a little more crazy, a little more on the frantic side than the past few. We’ve never really stopped and scratched our heads and put a lot of thought into what we do. It just sort of comes naturally.”

Barrett noted that although working with a major recording outfit has its perks — “If you’re selling records, the label can be your best friend” — Reel Big Fish has enjoyed its artistic independence since leaving Jive, a subsidiary of RCA, in 2006. Jive’s parent label, Zomba, acquired the indie label Mojo, the band’s previous home, in 2001.

“Luckily, we had already built up this amazing, loyal fan base, who didn’t care that we didn’t have a song on the radio. They just kept coming to the shows anyway,” Barrett said.

Barrett said the band’s relationship with Rock Ridge Music is a relatively simple one — Reel Big Fish makes music, and the label gets it out on the market.

“It’s definitely nice not having an A & R (artists and repertoire) guy over your shoulder in the studio saying, ‘We don’t hear a hit yet.’ We are self-sustaining at this point,” Barrett said of the band, which has a studio in Orange, Calif. “It is pretty freeing. It’s nice to be able to hand in a record to a group of people and they say, ‘This sounds great. We’ll put it out.’”